Reinforced rubber goods are used in a wide variety of consumer and industrial applications. The performance of reinforced molded rubber goods depends on the adhesion of the reinforcement to the rubber. Fabrics made with synthetic yarns tend to be difficult to bond to rubber.
In practice several things are done to improve adhesion, most of them involving coating fibers and/or fabric with an adhesion promoter. For example, as the fibers are drawn a spin finish may be applied which may contain an adhesion activator such as an epoxy resin.
There remains a need for reinforced rubber articles having fibrous layers with enhanced adhesion due to geometry and other physical properties of the fibers in addition to adhesion promoting chemistries.